Sir Cliff Richard has revealed he has been treated for prostate cancer during the past year.
The 85-year-old singer said his cancer had “gone at the moment” and backed calls for a national screening test for men.
In an interview with Good Morning Britain, he said, “I was about to embark on a tour… I was going to Australia and New Zealand, and the promoter said, ‘Well, we need your insurance, so you’ll need to be checked up for something.’
“They found that I had prostate cancer, but the good fortune was that it was not very advanced.” And the other thing is that it had not metastasised. It hadn’t moved into bones or anything like that.
“And the cancer’s gone currently; I don’t know whether it’s going to come back. I mean, you can’t predict the outcome with these types of situations, but I am absolutely convinced that we need to get tested and checked.
Sir Cliff made the revelation.
“I think we as men… we’ve got to be seen as human beings who may die of this thing.”
Sir Cliff made the revelation in conversation with former Sky News presenter Dermot Murnaghan, who has himself been diagnosed with stage four prostate cancer.
Image: Former Sky News presenter Dermot Murnaghan
Mr Murnaghan asked the singer whether he backed calls for a national prostate cancer screening programme, given that the disease is “the most prevalent cancer amongst men”.
Lending his support, Sir Cliff replied, “We have governments that look after our country and those who live in it.” We all deserve to have the same ability to have a test and then start the treatments really early.
“It’s only been one year now I’ve been in touch with cancer, but in point of fact, every time I’ve talked with anybody, this has come up, and so I think our government must listen to us.”
Image: Cliff Richard. File pic: PA
Last month the UK National Screening Committee decided not to recommend mass screening for prostate cancer, saying the measure was “likely to cause more harm than good”.
Instead, it proposes a targeted screening programme every two years for men with specific genetic mutations, known as BRCA-1 and BRCA-2, between the ages of 45 and 61.
The news comes after King Charles revealed he had reached a “milestone” in his own fight with cancer and would be able to reduce his schedule of treatment in the new year.
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The King had said: “Early diagnosis quite simply saves lives.
“Now, I have heard this message repeatedly during my visits to cancer centres across the country. I know too what a difference it has made in my own case, enabling me to continue leading a full and active life, even while undergoing treatment.
“Today, I am able to share with you the good news that thanks to early diagnosis, effective intervention and adherence to ‘doctors’ orders’, my own schedule of cancer treatment can be reduced in the new year.”
He continued: “This milestone is both a personal blessing and a testimony to the remarkable advances that have been made in cancer care in recent years; testimony that I hope may give encouragement to the 50% of us who will be diagnosed with the illness at some point in our lives.”
Buckingham Palace has not revealed what kind of cancer the King has, though it is confirmed not to be prostate cancer.
Read more: King ‘deeply touched’ by reaction to cancer ‘good news’ NHS to offer same-day prostate cancer diagnosis
Mr Murnaghan asked Sir Cliff whether his own charitable efforts could be co-ordinated with the King’s on the issue of early screening.
The pop icon replied: “I’m sure! I mean, why not? I’ve been involved with many charities over the years, and if the king is happy to front it for us, I’m sure loads of people… I certainly would join him, I’m sure you would.
“If the King is listening, then I’m sure most of us would say, yeah, we’re available.”
Thirty years since the war there ended, Bosnia and Herzegovina is still scarred by the ethnic cleansing campaigns which tore through the country, killing about 100,000 people and displacing well over two million.
The 1992–1995 war, triggered by ethnic tensions and competing nationalist projects in the wake of the violent breakup of Yugoslavia, was marked by the systematic targeting of civilians and culminated in the 1995 Srebrenica genocide – the worst atrocity to be perpetrated in Europe since World War II.
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When and why did the war in Bosnia begin?
Bosnia was one of six republics of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, a federation created during World War II and held together for decades under President Josip Broz Tito.
After Tito’s death in 1980, economic collapse and rising nationalism, particularly in Serbia and Croatia, led to demands for independence across the republics.
Slovenia and Croatia declared independence in 1991, with Macedonia following in early 1992, accelerating Yugoslavia’s disintegration.
Most Bosnian Serbs boycotted the vote, however, and instead formed their own “Serb Republic” structures, which later became the Republika Srpska (RS) entity within Bosnia.
Bosnia’s push for independence was also unfolding against the backdrop of Serbia’s aggressive separatist policies under Slobodan Milošević, who sought to unify Serb-populated areas in Bosnia and Croatia.
The European Community recognised Bosnia and Herzegovina as an independent state on April 6, 1992. That same month, Bosnian Serb forces, supported by the Yugoslav People’s Army and paramilitaries, launched coordinated attacks within the country to seize territory and expel non-Serb communities.
On April 5, the capital city of Sarajevo came under siege by Bosnian Serb forces, in what became the longest blockade of a city in modern European history. For nearly 43 months, the attacking forces shelled residential areas, cut off electricity and water, and tightened their grip on the capital, killing about 11,000 people.
Soon after that assault began, the United Nations Security Council imposed sweeping sanctions on Serbia and Montenegro for supporting efforts to carve up Bosnia and Herzegovina. In October 1992, Croat forces also attacked Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) areas around Prozor in southwest Bosnia, marking the start of a separate Croat-Bosniak conflict that brought its campaigns of ethnic cleansing.
How many people were killed and displaced?
The Bosnian authorities commissioned a post-war research project, which estimated that about 104,000 people, primarily civilians, lost their lives. Roughly two-thirds of those killed were Bosniaks.
International and Bosnian sources estimate that about 2.2 million people, more than half of the pre-war population, were forced from their homes as refugees or internally displaced. Most have never been able to return.
Which atrocities led up to the genocide in Srebrenica?
From the start, the war was characterised by systematic ethnic cleansing – particularly of Bosniaks – killings, mass rape, forced displacement and the destruction of cultural and religious sites. Here are some of the key events during the war.
1992 – Ethnic cleansing and the siege of Sarajevo.
Prijedor and the camps: In the northwestern region of Prijedor, Bosnian Serb authorities set up detention camps, including Omarska, Keraterm and Trnopolje.
Thousands of Bosniak and Bosnian Croat civilians were beaten, tortured, raped, and killed in these camps.
Research by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) described the crimes as “widespread and systematic”, targeting non-Serb citizens of the country.
Foca and Visegrad: In eastern Bosnia, Bosniaks were killed or expelled, and women and young girls were subjected to organised rape. The ICTY’s Foca case established rape and sexual enslavement as crimes against humanity.
Siege of Sarajevo: The capital, a multiethnic city, was surrounded by Bosnian Serb forces, who shelled residential areas and used snipers to target civilians on the streets.
in markets and in water queues. An estimated 11,000 people, including more than 1,000 children, perished during the siege, which lasted from April 1992 to February 1996.
(Al Jazeera)
1993 – ‘Safe areas’ established but massacres continue
With peace efforts failing, the UN declared Srebrenica in eastern Bosnia a “safe area” in April 1993, followed by Sarajevo, Tuzla, Zepa, Gorazde and Bihac a month later. But atrocities continued.
Ahmici massacre: In April 1993, Croat forces killed more than 100 Bosniak civilians in the village of Ahmici, central Bosnia, and burnt homes and mosques. ICTY judgements called it one of the worst acts of ethnic cleansing in the area.
Rape camps: The ICTY and rights groups also documented that rape was used as an instrument of terror, particularly in Foca – now located in Republika Srpska in the southeast of the country – where women and girls were held in “rape camps”.
Market attacks and pressure for intervention occurred between 1994 and 1995.
Sarajevo remained under siege. In February 1994, a mortar attack on the Markale market killed 68 civilians and wounded many more. A second mortar strike occurred at the same market.
in August 1995 killed 43 people. ICTY judgements and UN investigators have blamed Bosnian Serb forces for these attacks.
These and other attacks on so-called “safe areas” raised pressure on NATO and Western governments to act, setting the stage for heavier air attacks against the Bosnian Serb leadership later in 1995.
Sniper ‘safaris’ during the siege of Sarajevo
During the siege of Sarajevo, citizens were subjected to “sniper safaris”—so named as a grotesque reference to hunting expeditions— in which foreigners paid Bosnian Serb units to join them and shoot civilians from positions overlooking the city.
Following a recent Italian investigation, prosecutors in Milan are examining whether wealthy visitors from Italy and other countries travelled to Sarajevo on organised “tours” to shoot civilians for sport.
No one has yet been convicted for organising or taking part in these “safaris,” but the allegations highlight the extreme dehumanisation that accompanied the siege of the city.
It is believed that citizens from multiple countries took part. In 2022, Miran Zupanic, a Bosnian film director, released the documentary Sarajevo Safari, which investigated wealthy foreigners who had participated, including some from the United States and Russia.
Moreover, in 2007, former US Marine John Jordan testified to the ICTY that “tourist shooters” had come to Sarajevo.
How did the 1995 Srebrenica genocide happen?
By 1995, Srebrenica, a town in eastern Bosnia, had become a refuge for tens of thousands of Bosniaks fleeing surrounding villages.
which had been raided and ransacked by Bosnian Serb forces hunting them. The enclave was overcrowded and had become dependent on irregular UN aid convoys, and Bosnian Serb forces controlled the surrounding areas.
The UN declared Srebrenica a protected zone and stationed a small Dutch peacekeeping unit there, but the enclave remained under siege. Radovan Karadzic, the leader of the Bosnian Serbs, issued a directive in March 1995 to completely cut off Srebrenica.
In early July 1995, Bosnian Serb forces advanced on the enclave. On July 9, Karadzic’s forces were ordered to seize Srebrenica, and on July 11, Ratko Mladic, a Bosnian Serb military leader known as the “Butcher of Bosnia”, entered the town.
Over the following days, Bosnian Serb units separated men and boys from women and younger children.
More than 8,000 Bosniak men and boys were executed at sites in and around Srebrenica, and their bodies were dumped in mass graves. About 20,000 women, children, and elderly people were forcibly expelled.
The ICTY and the International Court of Justice later ruled that these killings constituted genocide.
How and when did the Bosnian War end?
Western governments had been reluctant to intervene decisively earlier in the war, but the genocide at Srebrenica forced a shift in approach.
NATO launched a sustained air campaign against Bosnian Serb forces in August and September 1995, marking a pivotal moment that paved the way for the Dayton Peace Agreement, which formally ended the war.
US-brokered talks brought the leaders of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, and the then-Federal Republic of Yugoslavia to an airbase near Dayton, Ohio, in the US.
On November 21, 1995, they agreed to the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
better known as the Dayton Peace Agreement, which preserved Bosnia as a single state divided into two main entities – the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Republika Srpska.
The agreement was formally signed in Paris on December 14.
What were the Dayton Accords?
The Dayton Peace Agreement was meant to do more than just end active fighting, and it reshaped the post-war political system.
Bosnia today has a highly decentralised structure of government, with two political entities as well as the third, self-governing Brcko District, shared between the other two, and layers of state-level institutions.
The Dayton Agreement dedicates an entire section to refugees and those displaced during the war. It says that “all refugees and displaced persons have the right freely to return to their homes of origin” and to have property restored or compensated.
But many experts describe the agreement as flawed in practice, as implementation has been partial at best.
While many people did return to their homes and hundreds of thousands of property claims were processed, significant numbers of Bosniaks were never able to return to their pre-war homes.
There were many reasons for this, including the presence of minefields, the fact that their housing had been destroyed, fear, economic hardship, and lingering, deep-rooted ethnic tensions.
Today, entire communities, particularly survivors of the Srebrenica genocide, remain in exile or have simply had to resettle elsewhere in countries such as the US and Australia.
Has anyone been held to account for the atrocities committed during the war?
In 1993, the UN created the ICTY to prosecute serious violations of international humanitarian law committed in the Balkans. The tribunal lasted 24 years, from 1993 to 2017.
Witnesses and survivors testified about the atrocities over more than two decades, leading to the indictment of 161 individuals. Ninety of those were sentenced.
19 were acquitted, 20 had their indictments withdrawn, 17 died before conviction, 13 were referred to other courts, and two were retried.
Four types of crime were recorded at the tribunal – genocide, crimes against humanity, violations of laws/customs of war and grave breaches of the Geneva Convention.
Among the people tried by the tribunal were:
Radovan Karadzic –
The tribunal tried Radovan Karadzic, who was the wartime leader of the Bosnian Serbs. In 2016, he received a life sentence for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, including his role in Srebrenica and the siege of Sarajevo.
In 2021, he was transferred to the high-security prison, HMP Parkhurst, on the Isle of Wight, off the south coast of England, UK.
Ratko Mladić – the Bosnian Serb military commander. In 2017, he was also sentenced to life imprisonment for genocide and other crimes. He is being held in the UN Detention Unit in The Hague, Netherlands.
Bosnian Croat leaders – several were convicted for crimes against Bosniaks during the Croat-Bosniak conflict.
Dozens of officials have also received long prison sentences for crimes linked to the Srebrenica genocide, though many survivors say justice remains far from being done.
Western Washington has been hit by severe flooding after days of relentless rain inundated towns and forced evacuations.
While heavy rain is common in the Pacific Northwest, officials and scientists say this event is different in scale and intensity.
The main driver is a series of powerful atmospheric rivers. Understanding how they work helps explain why the flooding has been so widespread and destructive.
What exactly is an atmospheric river
An atmospheric river is a long, narrow band of cloud and moisture that forms over warm ocean waters and moves through the atmosphere like a flowing river in the sky.
These systems can stretch thousands of kilometres while being only a few hundred kilometres wide. Despite their narrow shape,
They transport staggering amounts of water vapour, often comparable to the flow of major rivers on the ground. When an atmospheric river makes landfall, that moisture has to fall somewhere. Depending on conditions,
It can arrive as heavy rain or, at higher elevations, snow. In this case, unusually warm storm temperatures meant most of the moisture fell as rain.
Why Washington is especially vulnerable
Washington’s geography amplifies the impact of atmospheric rivers. Moist air moving inland from the Pacific is forced upward when it hits the Coast Range and the Cascade Mountains.
As the air rises, it cools and releases its moisture, a process known as orographic lift. This turns already heavy rain into extreme rainfall over river basins. Low-lying valleys, such as those around the Skagit and Snohomish rivers,
Several factors combined to make the flooding severe. The atmospheric rivers arrived back to back, meaning the ground had no time to dry between storms.
Soils became saturated quickly, leaving little capacity to absorb additional rain. As a result, more water ran directly into rivers and streams.
Simultaneously, earlier rainfall had already raised river levels. When the next surge of moisture arrived, water levels crossed flood thresholds and, in some cases, reached or exceeded historic records.
The role of stalled weather patterns
Another key reason for the scale of the flooding was that the storms did not move through quickly. A persistent weather pattern over the Pacific slowed the systems down, allowing the same areas to be hit repeatedly.
Instead of one intense burst of rain followed by clearing conditions, communities experienced days of continuous downpours. This repeated loading of water is what turns heavy rain into a flood disaster. Each additional hour of rain compounds the pressure on rivers, levees and drainage systems.
Is climate change worsening atmospheric rivers?
Scientists say climate change does not create atmospheric rivers, but it does make them more dangerous. Warmer air can hold more moisture, so as global temperatures rise, atmospheric rivers are able to carry and release more water.
This means that when these systems hit land, rainfall rates are higher than in the past. In regions like the Pacific Northwest, that translates into greater flood risk, even if the number of storms does not dramatically increase.
What happens next as waters recede
As rainfall eases, rivers are expected to slowly fall, but risks do not disappear immediately. Saturated ground increases the chance of landslides, while damaged infrastructure and stressed levees remain vulnerable. Emergency officials continue to urge caution, particularly in low-lying and river-adjacent areas.
In a light-filled workshop in eastern China, a robotic arm moved a partially assembled autonomous vehicle as workers calibrated its cameras, typical of the incremental automation being adopted even across smaller factories in the world’s manufacturing powerhouse.
China is already the world’s largest market for industrial robots, and the government is pouring billions of dollars into robotics and artificial intelligence to boost its presence in the sector.
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The first essentially humanless factories are already in operation, even as widespread automation raises questions about job losses as well as the cost and difficulty of transition for smaller and medium-sized companies.
The answer for many is a hybrid approach, experts and factory owners told AFP. At the autonomous vehicle workshop, manager Liu Jingyao told AFP that humans are still a crucial part of even technologically advanced manufacturing.
“Many decisions require human judgement,” said Liu, whose company Neolix produces small van-like vehicles that transport parcels across Chinese cities.
“These decisions involve certain skill-based elements that still need to be handled by people.” At the Neolix factory, 300 kilometres (186 miles) north of Shanghai, newly constructed driverless vehicles zoomed around a testing track, simulating obstacles including puddles and bridges.
In a closed-off room, workers assembled vehicles’ “brains”, testing their cameras and computer chips. “Automation… primarily serve(s) to assist humans, reducing labour intensity rather than replacing them.”
China’s strategy involves concentrating on industrial applications.
Liu said. But Ni Jun, a mechanical engineering expert at Shanghai’s Jiaotong University, said China’s strategy of focusing on industrial applications for AI means full automation is already feasible in many sectors.
Among others, tech giant Xiaomi operates a “dark factory”—where the absence of people means no need for lights—with robotic arms and sensors able to make smartphones without humans.
Digital divide – Ni described a “digital divide” between larger companies with the funds to invest heavily in modernisation and smaller businesses struggling to keep up.
Full automation is a distant dream for Zhu Yefeng’s Far East Precision Printing Company, which is part of China’s vast network of small independent factories that employ up to a few dozen people each.
At the company just outside Shanghai, workers in small rooms fed sheets of instruction manuals into folding machines and operated equipment that printed labels for electronic devices.
The company used pen and paper to track its workflow until two years ago, with managers having to run around the factory to communicate order information.”
Things were, to put it bluntly, a complete mess,” Zhu told AFP. The company has since adopted software that allows employees to scan QR codes that send updates to a factory-wide tracker.
On a screen in his office, Zhu can see detailed charts breaking down each order’s completion level and individual employees’ productivity statistics. “This is a start,” Zhu told AFP.
“We will move toward more advanced technology like automation in order to receive even bigger orders from clients.” Financial constraints are a major barrier, though.
“As a small company, we can’t afford certain expenses,” said Zhu. His team is trying to develop its own robotic quality testing machine, but for now humans continue to check final products. – Employment pressures –
The potential unemployment caused by widespread automation will be a challenge, said Jacob Gunter from the Berlin-based Mercator Institute for China Studies. “Companies will be quite happy to decrease their headcount… but the government will not like that and will be under a lot of pressure to navigate this.”
Gunter told AFP. Beijing’s push to develop industrial robots will “intersect with the need for maintaining high employment at a time when employment pressure is considerable,” he added. Going forward, manufacturers must strike a balance “between the technical feasibility, social responsibility, and business necessity”.
Jiaotong University’s Ni told AFP. Zhou Yuxiang, the CEO of Black Lake Technologies — the start-up that provided the software for Zhu’s factory —
told AFP he thought factories would “always be hybrids.”. “If you ask every owner of a factory, is a dark factory the goal? No, that’s just a superficial description,” Zhou said. “The goal for factories is to optimise production, deliver things that their end customers want, and also make money.”
The Geminid meteor shower – one of the most spectacular in the celestial calendar – is set to peak this weekend and astronomers say conditions could make for an especially striking show if weather permits.
The meteors are visible all over the world, though people in the Northern Hemisphere will get the best views.
In the UK, if the skies are clear, a waning crescent moon will only rise after midnight, which should mean several hours of dark skies to see the meteors more clearly.
Multiple views of asteroid 3200 Phaethon – the source of the Geminids meteor shower.
We get treated to meteor showers when Earth passes through the trails of comets—icy objects that NASA calls “cosmic snowballs”—or, in rarer cases, including the Geminids, asteroids, which are rocky.
When dust and gases from these objects enter our atmosphere, they burn up and create the bright streaks we know as shooting stars.
While most meteors appear white, some can glow green, yellow, red, or blue, depending on the elements in the material as it burns up in Earth’s atmosphere.
Metals such as sodium, magnesium, and calcium produce colours similar to those seen in fireworks.
The Geminids shower comes from the remnants of an asteroid called 3200 Phaethon.
Until recently, scientists thought the Geminids were a result of dust escaping from 3200 Phaethon. But two years ago scientists revealed that Phaethon’s tail is actually made of glowing sodium gas. So there is still some uncertainty about how and when the Geminids dust was formed.
The Geminids offer one of the year’s best chances, weather-permitting, of seeing a shower, due to the volume and frequency of its ‘shooting stars’.
“What you’d be looking at in a nice dark sky without clouds would be, say, 100 an hour, which is wonderful,” said Dr Robert Massey of the Royal Astronomical Society.
Bright moonlight can make it more difficult to see meteors and other objects in the night sky. But weather-permitting, we could have close to ideal viewing conditions as the Geminids peak.
The crescent moon is in its final waning phases, with the bulk of it in shadow, and in the UK it also won’t rise until the early hours of the morning, potentially giving us a lovely dark sky in which to watch the spectacle.
Do keep in mind that visibility is still heavily influenced by weather conditions, so check your local forecast for the clearest possible window.
Finding somewhere without light pollution and with an open view of the sky will give you the best chance of seeing something.
Tips for night-sky enthusiasts
The Geminids are a naked-eye event, best enjoyed under dark, open skies, so you won’t need a telescope or binoculars.
“There aren’t that many entirely free natural treats. And this is one of them. So go out and enjoy it. You know, it’s a way of connecting with the sky, taking a moment to sort of forget our more earthly or more worldly concerns,” said Dr Massey.
The meteors appear to radiate from the constellation of Gemini, but looking slightly away from that point often provides a wider field of view.
“You just basically need to have reasonable eyesight to see this and I think that is incredible.”
What will the weather be like for the Geminids peak?
The Geminids meteor shower peaks on Sunday, 14 December.
Unfortunately, the weather in the UK isn’t looking ideal for viewing. Both Saturday and Sunday are expected to be windy and cloudy, with outbreaks of rain during the day and night.
On Sunday night, there may be a few drier, clearer spells. Northern Scotland and the Northern Isles, as well as parts of East Anglia and southeast England, are likely to have the best chances of catching a glimpse of the night sky.
But keep on checking in, as there may be gaps in the gloom. A good place to keep track of the potential for a good viewing in your area is the Met Office’s UK Cloud Cover Map and via BBC Weather.
Host Stassi Schroeder reunites the cast to explore scandals in the Season 3 Reunion
The hit US reality show, The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, explores themes such as infidelity, divorce, and even “soft-swinging,” which are not typically associated with Christianity.
The TV series follows a group of female influencers in Utah, the home of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS)—as they deal with friendship fallouts, romantic problems, and their relationship with their faith.
“These Latter-day Saints are no angels,” last month’s trailer for season three declared, setting the tone for what was to come.
The show became the most-watched unscripted season premiere of 2024 on Hulu and continues to attract millions of global viewers there and on Disney+.
And the cast of women, who previously gained notoriety on TikTok under their “MomTok” banner, have gained scores of social media followers.
Mormons reside in the UK.
But do Mormons living in the UK think the show gives a fair portrayal of their religion? BBC News has conducted interviews with some individuals, many of whom prefer to identify as members of the Latter-day Saints instead of Mormons.
“We’re normal people,” Ben, a podcast producer who lives near Burnley, says.
“So there is still infidelity, there are still extramarital affairs, probably at a significantly lower percentage because we are intentionally trying not to do that. But those things still happen.”
The show is an appointment viewing for Ben’s wife, Olivia, who he says “loves it”—having put the new season on their calendar so she didn’t miss it.
Olivia and Ben say Mormons’ lives are not as dramatic as the show suggests
When the first series aired last year, Ben, 27, felt there was “hesitancy” in the LDS community about it. Now, he says people are mostly supportive of the women on the programme and would say they are proud of them.
“In the UK, if you spend a week with a Latter-day Saint family, it will probably be generally dull and average,” he says.
Ben and Olivia are among the approximately 185,000 LDS members in the UK. The church was founded by Joseph Smith in the US in 1830, who said he received a revelation from God, which he translated to become the Book of Mormon.
Members of the LDS believe the book is the word of God, like the Bible. Unlike other branches of Christianity, members do not believe Jesus is himself God; rather, they believe they are separate beings.
In 1837, the first missionaries from the newly founded LDS arrived in the UK at Preston, Lancashire – now home to Europe’s largest Mormon temple.
Councillors approved plans to expand the temple, where Ben and Olivia occasionally worship, earlier this year.
‘It’s not their way of life.’
Traci says she sometimes worries about how Mormons are being represented
In Buckinghamshire, Traci, 57, tells BBC News that after growing up in the LDS Church, she moved away from the faith at the age of 17 following her mother’s death.
About a decade later, pregnant with twins, she says she prayed every night, scared and asking for help. Upon the birth of her sons and the arrival of missionaries, Traci claims to have sensed the Holy Ghost’s presence.
Since then, she’s been a practicing member of the LDS, which, among other things, means abiding by a health code that prohibits drinking tea, coffee, and alcohol, as well as eating meat sparingly.
Traci, a psychotherapist based in Olney, decided not to watch The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, but from what she’s been told about it,
She says, “It’s not representative of the women” she knows in the LDS. “It’s not the way that they live their life.”
She says she understands “sometimes people do have a curiosity about members of our church; they do want to know what makes us tick,” but adds, “Sometimes I worry, how are we being represented? How do you see us?”
Disney/Natalie Cass
Influencer Taylor Frankie Paul features heavily in a storyline about ‘soft-swinging’ in the show.
One of the major themes of the TV show is the pressure the women feel in their family lives. Jessi, a woman in the show whose storyline revolves around an emotional affair
She stated that avoiding issues in her marriage contributed to her infidelity, and she blames Utah’s Mormonism for creating “a lot of pressure to have the perfect relationship, the perfect family, and everything’s great.”
Back in the UK, we also spoke to Ben and Olivia’s friend Ashlyn, who went to university in Utah and now lives in Burnley with her husband, Joe, and their nine-month-old son.
She says the show is “a really accurate representation of the church in Utah and culturally what Utah looks like, where belief meets cultural practices.”.
The sheer number of Mormons there means that pressure to have a family comes not just from the Church but from “everybody that you interact with,” Ashlyn, 25, adds.
“That pressure is very real. A lot of us call it the Utah bubble.”
Becy/Bell Art Photography
Ashlyn and Joe say there are some differences between the LDS in Utah and the UK
However, she states that the situation is different in the UK. She describes the show’s US cast as “probably more cultural members” of the LDS, rather than devout believers.
Ashlyn describes her experiences of the LDS as encouraging, rather than pressuring.
“Some people view a lot of the commandments, and what people might label ‘rules’, as very confining and almost like there are all these gates holding me in,” Ashlyn says, “whereas for us, it’s viewed a little bit more as safety. It helps direct us in the right way.”
‘Soft-swinging’ and race issues in the show
And so-called “soft swinging”, one of the show’s scandals, would “definitely” be “discouraged” by the Church, she says.
Influencer Taylor Frankie Paul was at the centre of the story in Series 1 of the show, when she described her and her then-husband as being sexually intimate—but stopping short of “going all the way”—with two other couples at various parties.
Ashlyn explains how in the LDS, “we have something called the law of chastity that says we should really save sexual relations within our marriages.”
She says her lifestyle in Burnley is “very family-centred, very healthy, trying to focus on going to church on Sunday, serving others, being an excellent example to others, and helping in the community.”
Ashlyn adds, “I don’t think The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives would be as entertaining if it simply depicted them bringing cookies to their neighbours and living very wholesome family lives.”
Another theme in the show centres on Layla, a black member of the LDS who stops attending because she says the church doesn’t “resonate” with her as a person of colour, having converted to the LDS and moved to Utah when she was 16.
“There is an old scripture in the Book of Mormon that states that black skin is a curse. It’s something that I am aware of now that I wasn’t aware of when I first converted,” she says in the latest series.
In 2013, the LDS “disavowed” those teachings and now believe that “everyone is an equal child of God regardless of race.”
BBC News spoke to Naomi, a ‘Young Women’s President’ in her local congregation in London, meaning she looks after girls between the ages of 12 and 18 in her area.
She told us how, as “a Black female”, she hopes the children “can see me and my example and know what’s possible”.
Naomi says she hasn’t “had any negative experiences” in the church based on her race, and she says the teachings “have been denounced.”
Naomi feels accepted by the LDS despite its old teachings on race
The members of the LDS in Britain we spoke to had mixed opinions on whether The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives represents their way of life, with most agreeing that parts of it were exaggerated depictions.
Ahead of the first series of the show last year, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the UK released a statement titled, “When entertainment media distorts faith”.
“We understand the fascination some in the media have with the Church but regret that portrayals often rely on sensationalism and inaccuracies that do not fairly and fully reflect the lives of our Church members or the sacred beliefs that they hold dear.”
Naomi, who is a TV producer working on reality shows, knows all too well that it’s a classic of the genre that “things are going to be heightened; things are going to be produced to get the desired effect”.
Paul Lim has become the oldest player ever to win a match at the PDC World Darts Championship.
The 71-year-old defeated Dutch-born Swede Jeffrey de Graaf 3-1 in the opening round as the Singapore veteran was roared on by the crowd at Alexander Palace in north London.
Lim beat the previous record held by Northern Irishman John MaGowan, who was 67 when he knocked out Englishman Chris Mason in round one in December 2008.
Lim, known as the ‘Singapore Slinger’, will face 2024 world champion Luke Humphries in the second round.
Humphries, 30, had progressed with a 3-1 win over fellow Englishman Ted Evetts in his opening match on Saturday.
Lim beat Humphries in the tournament five years ago, when the older player, then aged 66, won 3-2 in the first round.
In the darts rematch, Humphries, who has a plethora of major titles under his belt, will face off against Lim in a completely different role.
However, he knows the crowd may not be on his side in his latest battle.
Humphries is excited about the prospect of facing Lim.
On facing Lim, Humphries said, “It’s amazing. He’s a legend. The most challenging aspect for me is the deep affection he holds for me.
“I talk to Paul a lot and he always says to me, ‘You’re my favourite player.’ It’s hard to go and play him – the crowd are going to be against me, so it will be a tough game.”
Read more from Sky News: King ‘deeply touched’ by reaction to cancer update The Sussex farm was growing berries in December.
Image: Luke Humphries defeated Ted Evetts in the opening round.
Lim said after his win: “First and foremost, I’m thankful to be here and I’m thankful to this crowd behind me. Just to make it here is an achievement.
“Even if you’re great, you can miss a shot, so take advantage.”
“I just took the advantage and I’m glad.
“Luke Humphries, I’ve been watching the last few years and he puts so much effort and time into what he’s doing.
Thailand’s sudden return to the use of force along its frontier with Cambodia is a blunt reminder of how volatile one of Southeast Asia’s most enduring territorial disputes remains.
The pace of the latest escalation is startling. Only weeks earlier, leaders from both countries stood before regional and international dignitaries at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit, endorsing a ceasefire framework that was presented as a political breakthrough.
The symbolism was heavy: a truce blessed by regional leaders and witnessed by United States President Donald Trump meant to signal that Southeast Asia could manage its own tensions responsibly.
Yet that promise evaporated almost as soon as the delegations returned home. Bangkok’s air strikes on Cambodian positions in contested border pockets triggered immediate evacuations.
Ceasefires in this dispute have rarely been more than pauses in a long cycle of distrust. Agreements are signed in conference halls, but the border itself has its own rhythm –
one shaped by longstanding grievances, competing national narratives and the difficulties of managing heavily armed forces operating in ambiguous terrain.
The ceasefire endorsed at the ASEAN summit was constructed as the foundation for a broader roadmap.
It committed both sides to cease hostilities, halt troop movements and gradually scale back the deployment of heavy weapons near contested areas. Crucially, it tasked ASEAN with deploying monitoring teams to observe compliance.
On paper, these were sensible steps. In reality, they were grafted onto political soil that was nowhere near ready to sustain them. Both governments were operating under heightened global scrutiny and were eager to signal calm to foreign investors, but the core issues –
Unsettled borders, unresolved historical claims and mutual suspicions embedded in their security establishments remained untouched.
The agreement thus functioned less as a resolution and more as a temporary show of goodwill to stave off international pressure. Its weaknesses were exposed almost immediately.
The summit’s momentum, rather than durable institutional mechanisms, heavily influenced the pact. High-profile witnesses can create ceremonial gravitas, but they cannot substitute for the painstaking work required to rebuild strategic trust.
Thailand and Cambodia entered the agreement with different interpretations of what compliance meant, particularly with regard to troop postures and patrol rights in disputed pockets.
More importantly, the proposed monitoring regime demanded close, real-time cooperation between two militaries that have long viewed one another through an adversarial lens.
Monitoring missions can succeed only when field commanders respect their access, accept their findings and operate under uniform rules of engagement. None of those conditions yet exists.
Domestic political considerations loom over all of this. In both Bangkok and Phnom Penh, leaders are acutely sensitive to accusations of weakness over territorial integrity.
Governments often act defensively, even preemptively, to avoid political backlash at home in an environment that easily inflames nationalist sentiment.
Thailand-Cambodia frontier reflects the legacies of colonialism.
To comprehend the recurring escalation of this conflict, it is crucial to place it within its broader context. The Thailand-Cambodia frontier reflects the legacies of colonial-era boundary-making.
The French, who ruled over Cambodia until 1954, were heavily involved in the delineation of the border, a process that left behind ambiguous lines and overlapping claims.
But as their institutions matured, as national narratives took firmer hold and as economic development transformed the strategic value of particular zones, the border dispute hardened.
Several of the contested areas carry deep cultural and symbolic significance, including the Preah Vihear temple, built by the Khmer Empire, which both Thailand and Cambodia claim to be successors of.
In 1962, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that the temple is within Cambodian territory.
When disputes erupted from 2008 to 2011, marked by exchanges of artillery fire, mass displacements, and duelling legal interpretations of the ICJ ruling, the political stakes crystallised.
The clashes did not just damage property and displace civilians; they embedded the border issue into the nationalist consciousness of both countries. Even periods of relative quiet in the years that followed rested on an uneasy equilibrium.
This year’s resurgence of violence follows that established pattern. Domestic politics in both capitals have entered a phase in which leaders feel compelled to demonstrate resolve.
Military modernisation programs, meanwhile, have provided both sides with more tools for coercion, even if neither desires a full-scale confrontation.
The proximity of troops in disputed pockets leaves little room for error: routine patrols can be misread as provocations, and ambiguous movements can quickly escalate into armed responses.
In such an environment, ceasefires, however well intentioned, have little chance of survival unless supported by mechanisms that address the deeper structural problems.
The fact that the ASEAN-brokered truce did not grapple directly with the border’s most contentious segments left it vulnerable.
Neither Thailand nor Cambodia is prepared to accept a binding demarcation that could be interpreted domestically as giving ground. Until there is clarity – legal, cartographic and political – the zone will remain a place where each side feels compelled to assert its presence.
External factors have further complicated calculations. Both countries operate in a geopolitical environment marked by larger power competition.
Neither Thailand nor Cambodia seeks to internationalise the dispute, but there are competing incentives to showcase autonomy, avoid external pressure, or signal strategic alignment.
These dynamics may not directly cause clashes, but they create a political environment in which leaders feel additional pressure to project strength.
What ASEAN must do
The implications of this escalation extend beyond the bilateral relationship. If air strikes, even calibrated ones, become normalised as tools of signalling,
Southeast Asia risks sliding into a period in which hardened positions become the default posture in territorial disputes. Civilian displacements could widen.
Confidence-building measures – already fragile – could evaporate outright. And the political space of diplomacy, which relies on leaders having room to manoeuvre away from maximalist rhetoric, could shrink dramatically.
ASEAN now faces a test of relevance. Symbolic diplomacy, declarations of concern and offers of “good offices” will not suffice. If an organisation wishes to demonstrate that it can manage conflicts within its ranks, it must undertake three essential steps.
First, it must insist that its monitoring missions are fully deployed and granted operational autonomy.
Observers need unrestricted access to flashpoints, and their assessments must be publicly reported to reduce the temptation for either side to distort facts. Transparent monitoring will not eliminate the dispute, but it can reduce opportunities for opportunistic escalation.
Second, ASEAN should establish a standing trilateral crisis group composed of Thailand, Cambodia and the ASEAN chair.
This group should be mandated to intervene diplomatically within hours of any reported incident. Timely engagement could prevent misunderstandings from hardening into military responses.
Third, ASEAN must begin laying the groundwork for a longer-term negotiation on border demarcation.
This would be politically sensitive and may not yield quick breakthroughs, but a structured process supported by neutral cartographers, legal experts and historical researchers could create space for gradual movement. A slow dialogue is better than no dialogue.
The United Nations could complement, though not supplant, ASEAN’s leadership. The UN’s technical expertise in boundary disputes, its experience managing verification processes, and its capacity to support humanitarian preparedness could reinforce regional efforts.
Crucially, UN involvement could depoliticise highly technical issues that often become entangled with nationalist rhetoric.
Yet none of these institutional tools will matter unless political leaders in Bangkok and Phnom Penh are prepared to confront the past honestly and consider compromises that may be unpopular.
Sustainable peace requires more than a respite from violence; it demands constituencies willing to accept that historical grievances must be resolved through negotiation rather than through force or symbolic posturing.
The collapse of the recent ceasefire should not be viewed merely as another unfortunate episode but as a sign that Southeast Asia’s security architecture remains incomplete.
The region has made impressive progress in building economic integration and diplomatic habits, but when it comes to managing high-stakes territorial disputes, structural weaknesses persist. Without meaningful investment in transparency,
shared rules and credible enforcement mechanisms, even the most celebrated agreements will remain vulnerable to political winds.
Thailand and Cambodia find themselves at a crucial juncture. They can either continue down a path where periodic escalations are normalised, or they can choose to engage in a process, even a long and imperfect one, that leads towards a final settlement.
Civilians, border communities, and regional stability would bear the costs of the former. The benefits of the latter would extend far beyond their shared frontier.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
Crowds have gathered at a London vigil to remember those killed in a mass shooting during an event marking the start of Hanukkah Police forces in England and Scotland have announced that they will increase their visibility in Jewish communities during upcoming celebrations.ing the religious holiday get under way.
Police have confirmed that the Bondi attack claimed the lives of at least 11 people, specifically targeting members of the Jewish community.
Among those killed was London-born Rabbi Eli Schlanger, whose family has confirmed his death.
The 41-year-old father of five was described as a “caring, vivacious, energetic, outgoing guy who loved people” His cousin, Rabbi Zalman Lewis, confirmed this.thing he said recently.
“Every human being on earth has a positive way to contribute to making the world a better place, and we just have He urged everyone to continue spreading light. I know Eli would be saying.
A crowd of around 100 people gathered outside the Australian High Commission in central London on Sunday evening for a vigil following the Bondi attack.
People could be seen waving British and Israeli flags, while some held signs reading, “Stop the hate.”
Speaking at the vigil, the rabbi for Marylebone, Yisroel Lew, lit a menorah and said, “After hearing what happened this morning, the first thought was, how can we bring more light?
“Don’t “Do not be afraid and celebrate Hanukkah.”p to mark the first day of Hanukkah.
The terrorist attack took place on Bondi Beach.
Also on Sunday evening, Sir Keir Starmer and his wife, Lady Victoria Starmer, lThere is a menorah in the window of Number 10. the beginning of Shabbat on Friday nights.
In a post on social media, the prime minister said, “Our thoughts and prayers are with those murdered in the terrorist attack on Bondi Beach today, and the Jewish community and their loved ones are receiving support.”y.
“Light will alw”Light will always win over darkness.” hatred extinguish the festival of light.”
“We know that such hatred also exists in this country, as we are still reeling from the attack on a synagogue in Manchester on Yom Kippur.”
Two people were killed in that attack at Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue on the holiest day in the Jewish religious calendar.
Starmer described the Bondi attack as “sickening” and said the government was working with the Community Security Trust (CST), a Jewish security organisation, on policing Hanukkah events in the UK.
Police Scotland said it was carrying out additional patrols around synagogues and other Jewish venues and “actively communicating with faith leaders.”
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said the Metropolitan Police would increase its visibility in Jewish communities ahead of Hanukkah events.
The police force confirmed this, adding: “At a time when London’s Jewish communities are coming together to begin the celebration of Hanukkah, we know this attack will be the cause of not just terrible upset but also significant heightened concern about safety.”
It added that “there is no information to suggest any link between the attack in Sydney and the threat level in London”.
King Charles said he was “appalled and saddened by the most dreadful antisemitic terrorist attack” at the Bondi Hanukkah celebrations, and that his – and Queen Camilla’s – “hearts go out to everyone who has been affected so dreadfully”.
He added that the light of the Jewish festival “will always triumph over the darkness of such evil”.
The Prince and Princess of Wales also issued a statement, saying their “thoughts are with every Australian today”, and they “stand with the Jewish community in grief”.
Meanwhile, the UK’s chief rabbi said the Jewish community will “rebuild with tenacity”.
“As we kindle our first Chanukah lights this evening, we hold the victims of the unspeakable atrocity in Sydney in our hearts and in our prayers,” Sir Ephraim Mirvis said in a statement on X.
Green Party leader Zack Polanski said he was on his way to a Hanukkah event which “should be a celebration but instead our community is once again mourning”.
“I will be thinking of everyone in Australia and those around the world in the Jewish community who know this fear and loss. We stand with you.”
The Board of Deputies of British Jews said it had offered its support to its Australian partners and was in touch with the government to discuss the UK response.
“The scourges of terrorism and antisemitism are shared, international challenges and need concerted and determined action to defeat them,” it added.
A revamp of train timetables has come into effect across the country, involving some of the most significant changes for more than seven years.
Rail operators are promising more services across the network and faster journeys on some routes as a result of the changes, with the East Coast Main Line to benefit the most.
Passengers are being advised to check the new timetables before travelling.
We haven’t witnessed this level of change since May 2018, when an update caused significant disruption and cancellations on certain routes.
Rail timetables undergo changes.
Every May and December, rail timetables undergo changes, but not to this extent.
Network Rail is promising quicker journeys and thousands of extra seats every day, following a £4bn investment over the past decade.
The changes promise a cut of 15 minutes to journey times between London King’s Cross and Edinburgh and 10 minutes between Edinburgh and York.
Several operators use the rail line, which Network Rail says will improve connectivity between Scotland, Northeast England, Yorkshire, and London.
LNER, one of the line’s users, referred to the changes as “transformational” and expressed its expectation of operating 10,000 additional services annually.
Ellie Burrows, Eastern regional managing director for Network Rail, said, “The industry has been preparing for many years for the new timetable.
“Our priority now is to continue working together to deliver the long-term benefits of this timetable change, the biggest in over a decade, for our passengers and the communities we serve.”
The changes will also see Northern launch a new hourly fast service between Leeds and Sheffield.
Transport for Wales is introducing new services for Chester, Wrexham and Swansea.
Another operator, Avanti, says there will be more trains between London and Liverpool.
However, there will be cuts to some routes as well. Avanti is cutting the number of services between Blackpool and London from four to two.
The changes are the biggest since May 2018, whena timetable update led to weeks of chaos on the Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) and Northern networks.
GTR and Northern cancelled up to 470 and 310 trains each day, respectively.
That led to a full review and eventually the Labour government’s decision to create Great British Railways and bring the industry under state control.
Simon Calder, a travel expert, expressed his confidence that the network won’t collapse completely, unlike the Thameslink line’s complete timetable reconfiguration in 2018, which was a complete mess.
“There has been an awful lot of thought and time invested in this, and the whole idea is to extract the maximum possible capacity from Britain’s Victorian rail network without jeopardising reliability.”
Rail industry expert Tony Miles told the BBC’s Broadcasting House programme that the changes in May 2018 had been based on “using every available slot for a train on the network, and that was the mistake”.
“You need to have some wriggle room” for when things go wrong, he added.
However, Monday morning would be the “real challenge” for the new system, Mr Miles said.
“Obviously Sunday morning services aren’t quite as stressful for the system as a peak time on a weekday.”
